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Willowbrook holds off West Chicago

After being outscored by 16 points in the first quarter, West Chicago's boys basketball team came close to erasing its deficit in the fourth quarter, but Willowbrook held off the Wildcats to earn a 63-53 win in West Chicago on Tuesday.

The Wildcats cut the Warriors' lead to 56-50 with 3:43 left to play thanks to back-to-back 3-pointers from Quinn Ricci, but Alonzo Verge Jr.'s 25 points, paired with some late free throws, helped the Warriors escape with the win.

"I thought we came out that first quarter, we were shooting lights-out," Willowbrook coach Chris Perkins said. "But we kind of got away from what got us going. Defensive pressure, we got a couple turnovers, got some easy layups, and I thought we were moving the ball really well in the first quarter."

Verge and Jake Bruns helped Willowbrook get off to a fast start. Verge got some quick steals, which helped turn into 6 fast points. Bruns came off the bench to drop two of his three 3-pointers.

Willowbrook (8-6) slowed its pace a bit, and West Chicago slowly cut the lead. Mike Bibbs 10 points in the first half helped the Wildcats outscore Willowbrook 17-13, going into halftime down 33-21.

In the third quarter Verge continued to prove why he's one of the best sophomores in the state, adding to his 15 points in the first half with 10 points in the second, despite struggling from the free-throw line.

West Chicago (5-8) stayed with Willowbrook, going into the fourth down 48-35 until Ricci started finding his range.

The 6-foot-3 junior hit four of his five 3-pointers in the second half, tallying 19 points on the night. His big back-to-back 3s cut the lead to 6 points.

"I see Quinn do that all the time. It's just getting Quinn to do that, meaning getting Quinn to take his shots when they come," West Chicago coach Bill Recchia said. "He'll get there. He does a nice job. I mean early on he was averaging double digits for the first five games, and I think that's where he should be."

Though Willowbrook slowed the scoring pace, some points in the paint from Kyle Rushin along with Bruns going 4 of 4 from the free-throw line helped to squeeze out the victory.

"We did better than what we're usually doing," Verge said. "Started out the game strong, started off with momentum. But we always slowly lose that at a point of time in the game, so I think that's something we need to work on."

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